The Bible, Cultural Identity, and Missions

The Bible, Cultural Identity, and Missions
Author: Dziedzorm Reuben Asafo
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2016-04-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1443892890

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This collection brings together a number of very carefully authored articles that outline practical approaches to three of theology’s most intriguing subjects, namely The Bible, Cultural Identity, and Mission. Each of these subjects is indispensable to both the astute Christian theologian and Christian since they form the very core of what Christians believe. Each contributor explores a unique theme, and carefully, through academic exactness and contextual experience, communicates this without forgetting to employ very basic and familiar cultural analogies to drive home the missionary imperative of the Christian faith.

Theology and Identity

Theology and Identity
Author: Kwame Bediako
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 527
Release: 2011-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1610974409

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Kwame Bediako examines the question of Christian identity in the context of the Greco-Roman culture of the early Roman Empire. He then addresses the modern African predicament of quests for identity and integration. Theology and Identity was one of the finalists for the 1992 HarperCollins Religious Book Award.

Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God

Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God
Author: Steven M. Bryan
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2022-06-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433569760

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Understanding God's Design for Cultural Diversity Humanity's diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and races were intended to be a blessing from God. However, due to sin and rebellion, these differences often result in alienation, hatred, and even violence, becoming one of the most urgent problems facing the world. Cultural divisions are unfortunately common in the church, too. How can Christians embrace God's purposes for diversity and experience renewal and unity as his people? Steven Bryan presents a biblical framework for thinking about cultural identity and experiencing cultural diversity as a positive good that God intended. Writing from more than 20 years of experience in cross-cultural mission work in Ethiopia, Bryan examines historical and political aspects of nationality, ethnicity, and race. This practical examination of cultural ideologies—including multiculturalism, nationalism, and intersectionality—helps readers move from asking, Who am I? to Who are we? as God's people. Timely and Applicable: Equips readers to understand God's purposes for their cultural identity and bridge divides inside and outside of the church Comprehensive: Explores contemporary issues including ethnocentrism, globalization, multiculturalism, and collective identity Theological: Explores the story of Scripture from creation to new creation to show how cultural identity is an important part of God's design Accessible: Written for pastors, ministry leaders, lay people, missionaries, and anyone who is grappling with the relationship between cultural identity and Christian identity

The Mission of God

The Mission of God
Author: Christopher J.H. Wright
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2013-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830864962

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Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that mission is bigger than that--there is in fact a missional basis for the Bible! The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God's mission. He provides a missional hermeneutic in response to this claim.

A Light to the Nations

A Light to the Nations
Author: Michael W. Goheen
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2011-04-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441214461

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There is a growing body of literature about the missional church, but the word missional is often defined in competing ways with little attempt to ground it deeply in Scripture. Michael Goheen, a dynamic speaker and the coauthor of two popular texts on the biblical narrative, unpacks the missional identity of the church by tracing the role God's people are called to play in the biblical story. Goheen shows that the church's identity can be understood only when its role is articulated in the context of the whole biblical story--not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. He also explores practical outworkings and implications, offering field-tested suggestions for contemporary churches.

The Peoples' Companion to the Bible

The Peoples' Companion to the Bible
Author: Curtiss Paul DeYoung
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 362
Release:
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451403305

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Highlighting the role of cultures in both the development of the Bible and in its subsequent reception around the world, The Peoples' Companion to the Bible enables students to see how social location-including gender, ethnicity, social class, and cultural pluralism-has figured in the ways particular peoples have understood the biblical text. But it also helps students formulate their own social location and biblical horizon as a key to understanding the Bible and its import for them.

Introducing Cultural Anthropology

Introducing Cultural Anthropology
Author: Brian M. Howell
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-06-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1493418068

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What is the role of culture in human experience? This concise yet solid introduction to cultural anthropology helps readers explore and understand this crucial issue from a Christian perspective. Now revised and updated throughout, this new edition of a successful textbook covers standard cultural anthropology topics with special attention given to cultural relativism, evolution, and missions. It also includes a new chapter on medical anthropology. Plentiful figures, photos, and sidebars are sprinkled throughout the text, and updated ancillary support materials and teaching aids are available through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources.

The Glory of the Nations, Ethnic Culture and Identity in Biblical Perspective

The Glory of the Nations, Ethnic Culture and Identity in Biblical Perspective
Author: Eric Christensen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2011
Genre: Christianity and culture
ISBN:

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Christians engaged in mission and worship have been dealing with the issues of culture and contextualization since long before the word 'culture' was even used to describe what it does today in the the social sciences. Christian discussions about the importance of context for mission and worship employ the term 'culture,' 'cultures,' and their corresponding concepts in nearly identical ways to how the social sciences use them. Mission and worship proceed from Christian understandings of salvation history, the mission of God, and the role of the church which derive from theology rooted in Scripture. The terms 'culture' and 'cultures,' are usually defined, however, in ways that exclude any specific reference to Yhwh's involvement in them, from their origins to their destiny. This fundamental dissonance between common assumptions about culture and the biblical record may obscure important aspects of the uniqueness of human societies pertaining to mission and worship from our discussion. This study raises the question of whether Christians are adequately served in these discussions by the meaning invoked with the words 'culture' and 'people group.' If the concepts of mission and worship themselves proceed from Christian understandings of Scripture, then Scripture is a natural place to look for guidance about how mission and worship have taken place and are to take place in the present day. Here I emphasize certain categories that emerge by hermeneutical tracing of biblical themes related to the topic of ethnic cultures. I present the study in three parts. First Part I addresses questions about biblical theological views of ethnicity and ethnic cultures in Christian identity and worship. The studies center around the biblical theme of the glory of the nations with the research questions 1) What are the specific meanings of glory (doza) and nations (ethnē/ethnōn ) as they appear in Revelation 21:24, 26 in canonical perspective? 2) What are the origin and destiny of the nations (ethnē) in Scripture? And 3) How does the narrative of Salvation History clarify the development of the glory of the nations? In Part II an ethnographic case study of Sundanese Christian churches presents ethnographic data gathered with the following two questions in mind: 4) How have elements of traditional ethnic culture shaped the distinctively Sundanese Christian church movement? And 5) How do distinctive aspects of Sunda Christian identity and worship affect the appeal of the movement? Finally in Part III I seek to integrate the thematic biblical and ethnographic streams to expose the missiological significance of the glory of the nations as a distinctively Christian concept and category for understanding ethnic cultures. The study culminates with practical recommendations for the re-examination and incorporation of the biblical concepts of ethnos and doza and a focus on the Hebrew identity within Scripture into mission practice and application to worship and church formation in multicultural congregations.

Becoming All Things

Becoming All Things
Author: Michelle Reyes
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310108926

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WINNER OF THE 2022 ECPA CHRISTIAN BOOK AWARD FOR NEW AUTHOR Healthy relationships across cultures are possible. Dr. Michelle Reyes takes a close look at the concept of cultural accommodation found in Scripture—and especially in the letter of 1 Corinthians—to redefine how Christians interact with cultural narratives that are different from their own. Christians—whose standard of living is oneness in Christ, whose gospel is radically nonexclusive—should be at the frontlines of justice and of cross-cultural unity. But many of us struggle to reach outside of our own cultural bubbles and form real relationships that move beyond stereotypes and lead to understanding, healing, and solidarity across cultural lines. Why is that? Why is it so difficult to reconcile our call to be united in Christ with a celebration of different cultural expressions? What are the reasons for cultural differences and how do they so often lead to stereotyping, appropriation, gentrification, racism, and other forms of injustice? What does the Bible say about human beings as cultural image bearers? How do we reevaluate our awareness of culture identity in a healthy and constructive way? These are just some of the questions that Dr. Reyes explores as she faces the challenges surrounding cross-cultural relationships in America today and her thoughts on the way forward. Spoiler Alert! The way forward does require willingness to change. It requires embracing cultural discomfort. But by engaging with this book, you will be empowered to learn how to become all things to all people—that is: how to reflect Jesus' love in a multicultural, multiracial body of Christ and to share that love with a hurting world.

Freedom of the Self

Freedom of the Self
Author: Jeffrey F. Keuss
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630876860

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Freedom of the Self revitalizes the question of identity formation in a postmodern era through a deep reading of Christian life in relation to current trends seen in the Emergent and Missional church movements. By relocating deep identity formation as formed and released through a renewed appraisal of kenotic Christology coupled with readings of Continental philosophy (Derrida, Levinas, Marion) and popular culture, Keuss offers a bold vision for what it means to be truly human in contemporary society, as what he calls the "kenotic self." In addition to providing a robust reflection of philosophical and theological understanding of identity formation, from Aristotle and Augustine through to contemporary thinkers, Freedom of the Self suggests some tangible steps for the individual and the church in regard to how everyday concerns such as economics, literature, and urbanization can be part of living into the life of the kenotic self.